fiction Archives - Page 495 of 724

November 24, 2018November 24, 2018

The Poet X

The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo (Author)

Booktalk: Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers–especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. When she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she knows that she could never get around Mami’s rules to attend, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

Snippet:
ABOUT A

Every time I think about Aman
poems build inside me
like I’ve been gifted a box of metaphor Legos
that I stack and stack and stack.
I keep waiting for someone to come knock them over.
But no one at home cares about my scribbling.

Watch the poet perform “Music for A”.

A 2018 Cybils Poetry nominee

BONUS! Download the Teacher’s Guide

November 20, 2018

They Call Me Güero

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems
by David Bowles (Author)

Booktalk: Life is tough for a border kid, but Güero has figured out how to cope. He writes poetry.

Twelve-year-old Güero is Mexican American, at home with Spanish or English and on both sides of the river. He’s starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to make poetry cool.

In Spanish, “Güero” is a nickname for guys with pale skin, Latino or Anglo. But make no mistake: our red-headed, freckled hero is puro mexicano, like Canelo Álvarez, the Mexican boxer. Güero is also a nerd–reader, gamer, musician–who runs with a squad of misfits like him, Los Bobbys. Sure, they get in trouble like anybody else, and like other middle-school boys, they discover girls. Watch out for Joanna! She’s tough as nails.

But trusting in his family’s traditions, his accordion and his bookworm squad, he faces seventh grade with book smarts and a big heart.

Snippet:
LOS BOBBYS, OR
THE BOOKWORM SQUAD

Lucky us! Mr. Soria knows
all sorts of writers who look
and talk like us: Dominicans,
Koreans, Mexicans, Chicanos,
Black and Native folks, too.

It’s the perfect time for us,
for diverse nerds and geeks,
for all woke readers–
heroes whose power
is traveling through these pages
to distant times and places
to find our proud reflections.

A 2018 Cybils Poetry nominee